1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to equipment and a method for accelerated aging of alcoholic beverages.
2. Prior Art
Some alcoholic beverages such as distilled alcoholic beverages do not appeal to the pallet without aging. "Natural" aging can take several years. For example, natural aging for the famous Chinese liquor Xi-feng requires three years. Mao-tai liquor requires three to five years for natural aging. Some varieties of French cognac are said to have been aged for a century.
Various methods have been proposed for the aging of alcoholic beverages. The devices and methods of the following patents are representative:
U.S. Pat. No. 818,478, issued Apr. 24, 1906 (Shwayder); PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 2,017,235, issued Oct. 15, 1935 (Drew); PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 2,086,073, issued July 6, 1937 (Francescon) PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 2,088,337, issued July 27, 1937 (Plume); PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 2,108,661, issued Feb. 15, 1938 (Farrier et al.); PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 2,132,435, issued Oct. 11, 1938 (Reiman); PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 2,135,622, issued Nov. 8, 1938 (Nagle); PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 2,196,193, issued Apr. 9, 1940 (Chambers et al.); PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 2,663,745, issued Dec. 22, 1953 (Wilson); PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 3,021,780, issued Feb. 20, 1962 (Bobbe); PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 3,222,180, issued Dec. 7, 1965 (Sucietto); PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 3,942,423, issued Mar. 9, 1976 (Herzfeld); PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,955, issued Feb. 14, 1978 (Koppelman); PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,656, issued Nov. 6, 1979 (Duggins); PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,639, issued Dec. 17, 1985 (Hojnoski); PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,824, issued Mar. 18, 1986 (Gubiev et al.).
In addition, other more exotic methods have been proposed, including subjecting the beverages to irradiation, ultrasonic scanning, microwaving and magnetization. Sometimes such a method may result in accelerated aging but within a few days the beverage may revert to its previous sensory qualities. Similarly, "biochemical" accelerated aging has been proposed utilizing bacteria, but liquor with an alcohol content higher than about 16 percent may be fatal to the bacteria.
Up to now, there is no known effective manner of greatly accelerating the aging process, particularly for alcoholic beverages of superior quality.